John Schwarz, who organized a viral shopping boycott, was previously registered as a sex offender after pleading guilty to “disseminating voyeuristic material.”
A grass-roots movement called the People’s Union USA was at the center of a request for Americans to participate in a 24-hour shopping boycott on Friday. It urged them to avoid spending money at big-box stores and to stick instead to small businesses or, ideally, not spend any money at all.
“If we disrupt the economy for just ONE day, it sends a powerful message,” reads a line explaining the event on the group’s website.
The boycott became popular on social media in the days leading up to Friday, spreading widely with endorsements from celebrities including the author Stephen King, the actor John Leguizamo and the singer Bette Midler.
But who is behind this group? A man named John Schwarz.
In a lengthy bio on the group’s website, Mr. Schwarz, 57, details his parents’ divorce, his meditation practice and his various homes over the years, including a stint living in New England.
While the movement has spread far beyond Mr. Schwarz’s organization, with many participants seemingly unaware of the group’s existence, some details of Mr. Schwarz’s past that were not included in his official biography complicate his place at the center of what appears to be an earnest attempt at economic protest.
In 2007, Mr. Schwarz was sentenced by a Connecticut judge to 90 days in jail and five years’ probation for disseminating voyeuristic material, according to a representative from the Middlesex County criminal court clerk’s office who reviewed court records while speaking with The New York Times earlier this week.